You can be driving down the road and suddenly it rains for 50 feet and then stops. Go figure..

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Fifty years ago, in 1963, the Cumberland County Board of Chosen Freeholders, led by Director Edgar Hand, voted unanimously, 26-0, to establish a county library.

This was a huge leap forward into the future since the two adjoining counties of Salem and Gloucester had been offered incentives by the New Jersey State Library to also begin a county library.

But had declined the offer.

Miss Dorothy Thompson, the first Cumberland County Library director, established the new essential services in a downtown Bridgeton store front on Laurel Street.

The library was stocked with 40,000 books, and a bookmobile visited locations throughout Salem, Gloucester and Cumberland counties.

It must have been a very exciting evening on June 20, 1963, when the first library commission meeting was held at the Tri-County Library headquarters in Bridgeton.

Several years later, a new county government complex on Route 49 was built and the eastern wing was dedicated as the library.

The library continues to be housed at this location in Fairfield Township.

Fifty years later, technology has evolved, as well.

Much has changed, but the mission is still the same.

Cumberland County Library

The Cumberland County Library continues to be an essential community doorway to information, reading, knowledge, resources and lifelong learning, as well as a welcoming community center for people, ideas and culture.

This Saturday, the library, with its loyal user community, will enjoy a day-long celebration.

The celebration will begin at 10 a.m.

Mrs. Dorothy Thompson West, the first director of the library, will be among those honored.

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And working just as hard is the Bridgeton Library.

To bring in money to help buy more books, the Friends of the Bridgeton Library will sponsor another used book sale beginning Saturday, July 13, at 10 a.m.

The sale will be in the first floor main area of the library, located at 150 E. Commerce St., Bridgeton, and run every day the following week through Saturday, July 20.

All books are uses, but many of them are in such good shape they appear to be almost new.

They will be available in the first two days of the sale, but they will be purchased quickly.

Nothing over $2.

Sale hours will correspond with the hours the library is open; 10 a.m. to 2:p.m. on Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday and Friday, and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

As the sale goes on, most book prices will be dropping, but in past sales the best books are sold within a few days.

Friends funding for new books amounted to $14,000 each of the last two years.

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Bill Fuller keeps passing out plaques on behalf of his South Jersey Phoenix football team put of Bridgeton that called Jim Hursey Stadium home this past spring.

The latest plaque went to the Bridgeton Board of Education Tuesday night.

“We made contact with Rowan and they’ve agreed to come down and lok at our players next season,’’ he told the board.

“Every team that came in to play us was wowed by the facilities. That couldn’t have happened without your support. You made a world of difference.’’

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Magic Johnson come to Bridgeton?

Don’t bet against it.

Magic Johnson’s bridge program enabled nine sutdents who dropped out of Bridgeton High School to come back and graduate.